Various types of mechanisms for connecting an aircraft door to the outer envelope of an aircraft cell are known.
Such doors can, in fact, open by pivoting downwards or upwards, in which case specific means, which are generally heavy, must be provided in order to overcome the weight of the door, either as it is being closed or to keep the door in the open position. Doors of this type are used in many conventional aircraft, and they are also common in flying wings and blended wing body aircraft, such as the aircraft 10 illustrated diagrammatically in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in which the aircraft is seen from above and below respectively, and which thus comprises three doors 12 on each side of its vertical plane of symmetry 14. As a reminder, blended wing body (or BWB) aircraft are aircraft whose cells incorporate the characteristics of conventional fuselages and flying wings in a hybrid configuration in which the fuselage is completely incorporated into the wing, which is as a consequence thick, without any clear distinction of the connecting portion between the fuselage and the wing.
In other known configurations, the door opens by moving horizontally, in which case the opening mechanism generally involves a combination of rotational and translational movements, or several rotations about different axes, in order to avoid the need for the door to protrude outside from the aircraft cell envelope in its closed position.
In every case, the aircraft door opening mechanisms are relatively complex and heavy.